


Black and Gold

by rosegaarden



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Original Work
Genre: Character Death, Homophobia, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, and someone slices their fingers open, i love tevinter, someone gets their knuckles caned, that's the extent of it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-09
Updated: 2019-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:42:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25356430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosegaarden/pseuds/rosegaarden
Summary: Gallus is the blackened child.He is the backdrop that makes Amadeus shine. The shadow on the wall to be ignored.
Kudos: 1





	Black and Gold

**Author's Note:**

> Some Dragon Age writing. It seems to be the thing that inspires my muse the strongest. This one is about my Tevinter Magister OC, when he was a child, he was made for an RP site that I never actually talked in.

#### I.

Amadeus is the golden child.

Tevinter is a country of black and gold. Its gold shimmers, it flashes, it is scales and sparks and filigree edging that speaks of wealth. Beautiful, coveted, desired by all who adorn themselves in its opulence. But black… black is the staple, the foundation. It is a base on which the city is built and it is the backdrop that makes its gold shine all the brighter.

Gallus is the blackened child.

He is the backdrop that makes Amadeus shine. The shadow on the wall to be ignored.

#### II.

They both bleed red.

Every day, the tutor comes and forces Amadeus to slice open his fingers. That red drips onto the ground as he’s taught how to listen to the hum of magic in his own blood, how to twist and shape it to his desires. It is the mark of a Magister’s son, to receive such a prestigious education.

Amadeus seems to hate every moment.

Gallus is only the second born, the investment, the necessary evil in case something happens to the golden child. The lessons are not his to join, but he watches, and at night, he stains the ground from slicing his fingers to learn on his own.

#### III.

Gallus often stains his fingers black.

He locks himself away in the family’s library when Gallus is being paraded as a prized peacock, devouring books and taking in all the knowledge he can to make himself useful. Spines crack under his palms, pages turning in soft susurrations, tomes that haven’t been opened in decades are bared to him.

Gallus is not allowed to use his father’s ink, but he steals small amounts to take notes that he keeps hidden between the pages. His appetite is voracious, unquenchable.

The first time his father finds out about his habit, he takes a cane to Gallus’ knuckles.

He cannot hold a quill for weeks.

#### IV.

The fade is a kaleidoscope.

Gallus finds that the world feels more real here. Even in his waking hours, if he shuts his eyes, he can step outside of himself to walk the Fade, and touch it, taste it as though it were truly around him.

Amadeus complains that he cannot dream as easily anymore, that the Fade is more difficult to touch each day, and it makes Gallus wonder if something is wrong with him.

The blackened child shouldn’t be allowed to accomplish what the golden child cannot.

So he keeps his escape to himself.

#### V.

Amadeus turns pink when he sees the blacksmith’s son.

When Gallus notices, he wonders if he should say something. His brother had been betrothed since his birth to a beautiful Tevene woman with hair like a swarm of ravens, but he never seemed to look at her the way he looks at the blacksmith’s son when he sweats over the forge.

He never understands until he meets an elven servant at the Titus household.

Gallus is shown passages in the walls, his hand is held as they steal rolls of bread from the busy kitchen to escape into the gardens together. Under the moonlight and the canopy of a magnolia tree, Gallus is given his first kiss.

He never sees the elf again.

When he tells Amadeus, his brother grows quiet and still. He tells him that father must never know that they are different. That they are wrong.

Neither of them sleep that night.

#### VI.

The desire demon paints the fade purple.

Gallus isn’t sure when the creature begins to haunt him, but he finds himself content in its company. It calls itself Guile, presenting itself as a man that Gallus might find handsome if his idea of beauty wasn’t trapped in a frozen moment beneath a blooming tree.

Guile guides him through the fade, to wonders and beauties that Gallus couldn’t dream of — is dreaming of. In ancient ruins and forgotten libraries, it whispers in his ear that it can give him all he wants. All he desires.

And every time, Gallus turns him down politely. He cannot admit that the demon has already given him the friend he has craved all his life.

#### VII.

Amadeus is buried in white.

The golden child is no longer bright and shining. He’s cold and lifeless where he lays, with flowers woven into his hair. Gallus wishes that he could mourn his loss properly, could scream and sob and shatter the crystalline glasses each Magister carries as they give their shallow condolences.

Amadeus’ clothes fit him wrong. He was always bigger, stronger.

His father puts his hand on Gallus’ shoulder and speaks of how he mourns the loss of his dear second son. How it grieves him so, to place his dear Gallus in the ground.

Gallus tries not to cry when his father calls him Amadeus.


End file.
